Runaway Indonesian workers nabbed in Taichung

2012/05/03 18:49:10

Taipei, May 3 (CNA) Police in Taichung City, central Taiwan, recently arrested 11 migrant workers from Indonesia who had run away from their employees and were living in shared apartments in two locations in the city.

One of the workers, a 43-year-old woman, was spotted in the city's Situn District Tuesday afternoon wearing a face mask and carrying bags.

Patrol police officers said her actions appeared suspicious and they asked to see her papers. The officers found out that she had come to Taiwan in March last year to work and ran away five months later.

The police arrested another five absconding Indonesian workers in Daya District after the woman told authorities that she had been sharing an apartment with the five.

In their interrogation of the five workers, police authorities foundout that five other Indonesians were hiding at another apartment in the city's Central District. Those five workers were also arrested later.

The authorities said the 11 Indonesians had work permits for jobs in Taichung, Taoyuan, and Kaohsiung but had absconded for periods ranging from a few months to two years.

The case has been forwarded to the National Immigration Agency for further investigation, the police said.